Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Healthy breakfasts

February 17, 2014 by Mary 36 Comments

On Sunday mornings, we like to have a big breakfast/brunch type of deal – eggs, turkey or chicken sausage, toast (with maybe a little of Ethel’s delicious honey on that), fruit salad and tea.

Yesterday, I made an omelet. I used to make them all the time when the kids were home – a big one with, like, 8 eggs. They loved it – with all kinds of fillings – and making them a lot keeps you in practice. Flipping practice. Well, it appears I am seriously out of practice. Just check out this photo – not a pretty sight. But, it tasted good! I filled it with provolone and cheddar cheeses, some finely chopped raw red pepper, fresh grape tomatoes and a chiffonade of basil. It was tasty, but time consuming. And, it makes a mess! (Although pictured here, the garlic was NOT in our omelet.)

Now if you want a healthy breakfast in a flash, check out these good folks at Mix My Own Healthy Breakfast. It’s a husband and wife team with a neat concept. You literally choose what you want to go into your custom mix of cereal, with tons of healthy, organic options to choose from. They asked me to mix my own cereal and review their product. I chose oats, goji berries, raw almonds, walnuts, wheat germ, bran, spelt and barley flour flakes along with quinoa, acai powder, blueberries and a whole host of healthy things. I don’t really eat cereal with milk anymore, mainly because the kids are gone and we don’t have milk around. But, I do love to put cereal on my plain low fat Greek yogurt and then drizzle a little honey on top. That’s a real energizer in the morning!

Mix My Own has tons of things to choose from (it can be dizzying) and they keep track of your combination so you can easily order it again, because who could remember? Fortunately, if you are overwhelmed and find making decisions tough, you can also order pre-mixed versions such as gluten-free or antioxidant varieties. The end resulting product is delicious, although depending on your ingredient choices, it can be pricey. They ship nationwide and my one-pound bag, with shipping, was just under $20. If you love cereal or granola-type things, visit their website and create your own combo. It’s a good thing!

Valentine’s Day! – Loving France

February 14, 2014 by Mary 30 Comments

I love France. I always have. I took French in high school – 3 years – and my husband and boys ALWAYS make fun of me when I try to speak the language. But then our French interns say I have a great accent! So, for this Midwest girl with really, really, bad A’s, are they telling me the truth or just trying to butter me up?

No matter. I carry on. I love the food. I love the country. I love the cheese. The butter. The salt. The champagne.

We took the kids there when they were young. I forget why. I think we had just won a big new account and wanted to celebrate. The youngest was seven. For a two-week trip, after 3 days, he wanted to go home – to his room and his stuffed animals. He missed them.

Can you believe it??!!! I was incredulous. And we promised DisneyLand Paris and that was still 4 days away!

Lovely family in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

I remember, getting out of that Metro Station, climbing the steps and turning around and seeing the Eiffel Tower and literally screeching with joy at the sight – in true tourist fashion. No wonder my sons can’t stand me.

We carried on – he got over it – of course he doesn’t really remember a whole lot of the trip now – but we all had a great time (along with some other interesting stories for another time).

But just recently Rendez-vous des Arts Culinaires contacted me to do an interview for Valentine’s Day. Was I delighted? You bet! They found me and I am always happy to talk about LOVE and cooking. The interview is here. In fact, taking the boys to France at the ages of 11 and 7, I believe, formed the foundation of their love of wonderful food and wonderful ingredients. They knew the difference, even then, in the taste of the butter, the bread, the jambon, the crepes.

(Oh I raised monsters.)

Anywho, I’m delighted that Rendez-vous des Arts Culinaires featured us on our day – Valentine’s Day! They wanted to publish this recipe of ours: Silky Chocolate Cake.

And I have some other great recipes for your dinner tonight or this weekend in our newsletter – super easy Veal Chops with Sage and an awesome Chocolate Souffle that you shouldn’t be afraid of, because it will work, following these simple instructions. If you didn’t get the newsletter and would like it, let me know either through a comment or signing up in the upper right hand corner and I will personally make sure you get it before dinnertime tonight.

Love to all!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

And a big thank you to the great folks at Rendez-vous des Arts Culinaires!

Vegetarian Delight

February 11, 2014 by Mary 11 Comments

Vegetarian delight finished dish - baby spinach, beans and roasted vegetables topped toasted pine nuts and goat cheese.

Once on week I make a meatless meal, much to the disconcertion of my husband. He hates them. He knows, intellectually, it’s a good idea but the complaints beforehand, egads, it drives me crazy!! But I soldier on, try to ignore him and cook up something, with LOVE. You probably know by now that I love salads, but salads are not very inviting with all this cold weather we’re having here on the East Coast. And raw foods are very good for you. So I made up this Vegetarian Delight with warm beans and roasted veggies, including the tomatoes, on a base of raw baby spinach leaves.

By golly, he loved it! He kept on talking about it – even the next morning! BINGO, I know something is really good if he’s still talking about the next morning AND it’s meatless too! This is packed full of nutrients, delicious with the contrasts of the cool baby spinach leaves and the warm roasted vegetables, even on a frigid winter night. The roasted shallots and crushed garlic cloves were a brilliant addition providing bursts of flavor, complementing the sweet parsnips while the warm, slightly roasted tomatoes provided the right acidity. The Midnight Moon goat cheese is a wonderful splurge, but not really necessary if you are a true vegetarian. We loved this dinner and it’s going to be repeated often in our household.

Truly, I just made this with the vegetables I had on hand. You can try your own combination but I will say that this blend was really yummy. I hope you’ll try it and it makes your recipe regulars too.

VEGETARIAN DELIGHT serves 2

2 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves – about 4 – 5 oz., washed and spun dry
1 – 15 oz. can cannellini beans, drained, rinsed and drained again
1 Italian eggplant, cut in 3/4” slices, roasted
1 parsnip, peeled and cut into julienned strips
1 zucchini, cut into 1/4” slices
2 shallots, peeled and quartered
1/2 of a poblano pepper, cut into 1/4” strips
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tomato from the vine, cut into 6 or 8 wedges
3 grape tomatoes, cut in half
Sherry vinaigrette
Midnight Moon hard goat cheese, cut into small strips
Toasted pine nuts

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Slick a cookie sheet or flat roasting pan with peanut oil. Arrange eggplant slices on the sheet, salt with fine sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

On another rimmed baking sheet, toss parsnips, zucchini, shallots, poblano pepper and garlic with 2 tbs. olive oil, salt and pepper.

Roast the eggplant on the bottom rack of your oven for 20 – 25 minutes, until nicely browned on the bottom while you roast the other vegetables on the top rack at the same time. Roast the top mixed vegetables for 20 minutes, then add the tomatoes and toss and roast for 5 – 10 minutes longer, until all the vegetables are fork tender. Toast the pine nuts in a separate pan for 5 – 10 minutes until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, make your dressing, prepare the cheese and warm the beans in the microwave for a minute on high.

Assemble your salads. Place the spinach leaves on the plate, top with the warm beans (you may not use all of them – save them for tomorrow’s lunch), remove the eggplant slices with a metal spatula so you don’t loose the lovely browned bottom.

Place 4 eggplant slices on each salad, browned side up. Toss the other vegetables and place a nice amount on top. (You probably won’t use all of these either). Drizzle dressing over all and top with cheese and pine nuts. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Vegetarian Delight, just before drizzling dressing and topping with toasted pine nuts.

Vegetarian Delight, just before drizzling the dressing and topping with toasted pine nuts

Super Bowl Food

February 1, 2014 by Mary 22 Comments

We are getting ready for the big game tomorrow organizing our Super Bowl Food. The excitement in this city is palpable! A section of Times Square has been converted to Super Bowl Boulevard. It’s crazy, you can even ride a toboggan there. It’s warmed up and the initial rain that was predicted has been taken off the menu. Woo hoo!
Super easy nachos with avocados

My husband and I are having a little party tomorrow and I’m serving up traditional football-watching food. My super easy nachos, spicy chicken chili with all the toppings, along with Jasmine rice, cornbread, a big tossed salad with a sherry vinaigrette and brownies with ice cream and strawberries for dessert. All the recipes are here if you’d like to follow my lead. My husband would totally love those little pigs in a blanket but I won’t let him have it. Way too unhealthy. And last I heard, my good friend Margaret, who is coming, is making homemade stuffed grape leaves. I am very excited for those! I’ve never had homemade grape leaves.

Our January newsletter went out yesterday – in the neck of time. (Yep, last minute Mary here!) The newsletter features recipes not available on the blog and I’m suggesting a great Valentine’s Day menu – Veal Chops with Sage and a super easy Chocolate Souffle. If you’d like to receive it, at no charge, please sign up for it in the upper right hand corner and I’ll be sure to get it to you.

And while I’m at it, a LOVE apron would make a nice little Valentine’s Day gift for your sweetie. Click on the ad in the right hand column and we’ll get one right out to you.

May your favorite team win tomorrow!!

Chatman J Cakes – now available on Etsy.com!

January 28, 2014 by Mary 23 Comments

OMG, I slept eight straight hours last night!!! I didn’t wake up once. I can’t believe it, nor can I remember the last time that happened. Usually I wake up after four hours, like clockwork, and have a heck of a time going back to sleep. Wow! This feels great! Maybe it’s due to the Chatman J Cakes we had last night for dessert.

I want to tell you about Jean Chatman. I met her at a foodie lecture event a few months ago. She’s a lovely lady and so very proud and excited about her cakes. She certainly makes them with LOVE, as you can tell and taste it. After 15 years in the corporate sector and years of hosting parties for families and friends, Jean decided to follow her dream and pursue her passion.

The Zucchini Bread with walnuts

Jean asked if I would review them. She focuses on 3 varieties – Rum, Coconut and Zucchini bread with walnuts. Using organic and local ingredients, these cakes are mixed by hand. They are all delicious, but my personal favorite is the rum, which is so very moist and addictive. The coconut cake is topped with a layer of fluffy white wisps – but sadly my photos of that one got corrupted. I also loved the addition of walnuts in the Zucchini Bread. It’s a very nice touch.

The Rum Cake

Check out Chatman Cakes website where she has other delectable desserts – the cheesecake looks divine. And they’re now also available on Etsy.com.

If you live in NYC, you can find Chatman Cakes at Harlem Shake (hey, that rhymes) on 124^th Street and Lenox Avenue or, in the spring, at Marcus Garvey Park on Saturdays from 9 am – 3 pm.

When you don’t have time to make a dessert yourself, this is a great buy. They’re homemade goodness – it’s just from someone else’s home!

Green Beans and Shiitake Mushrooms

January 22, 2014 by Mary 15 Comments

Oh I had a terrible nights sleep last night. Woke up after four hours and could not go back to sleep. My mind just races and I start remembering who I need to write or call and things I need to do at the office. When this happens, I write a note. In bed. In the dark. And I try not to have the sound of note taking or ripping paper wake up my husband. I keep a pad and pen right by my bedside to do this. Well this morning, I had no less than twelve notes to myself!! I have been doing this for some time and really, I’ve found it is an efficient way of working for me. I remember and get a lot of stuff done. But one night over this past weekend, I wrote a note to myself in the middle of the night and although I always check to make sure that the pen tip is out (in the dark) before writing, this time, the pen didn’t have ink! So all I could see was the impression of the writing. But no worries, when morning came I marched out to my art studio and rubbed some black charcoal on it and I was able to read that sucker! Last night, I finally went back to sleep after some meditation and dreamt a long dream. Then I woke up again! But then I went back to the same dream. Ever do that? One of the notes to myself was to tell you about this great way of cooking Green Beans and Shiitake Mushrooms. Low fat for Zach and super yummy. I hope you’ll give it a go – and sleep better than I do!

The beauty of this simple recipe is that the green beans are boiled crisp tender and the richness of just the little bit of butter and oil is combined with the lovely mushrooms and this is what gives a big flavor to the dish. The contrast of the rich mushrooms with the crispness of the green beans makes it! Makes it interesting, delicious, clean tasting and so very good for you. Make it with LOVE, know you’re serving healthy great food.

GREEN BEANS AND SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS – serves 4

1 lb. of green beans or 4 handfuls, washed and strings removed
15 – 20 shiitake mushrooms, caps wiped clean with a damp paper towel, stem ends trimmed, stems removed and minced, caps sliced into 4 slices each
1 tbs. of olive oil
1 tbs. butter
Salt
Pepper

Heat a large pot of water to boil. Salt with coarse sea salt and throw in green beans and stir. Leave in for 3 – 5 minutes until crisp tender. Taste one to see if it’s done to your liking but remember they will keep cooking when off of the heat. Remove from heat, drain thoroughly then pat dry with a clean linen tea towel and keep warm while you finish cooking the mushrooms.

Meanwhile, place a skillet over medium-high to high heat with the butter and olive oil. As soon as the butter foam begins to subside, spread the mushrooms out evenly over the bottom of the pan and do not touch for 3 minutes. Then toss and shake the pan for 2 minutes. (During the sauté, the mushrooms will at first absorb the fat. Then in 2 – 3 minutes, the fat will reappear on their surface and the mushrooms will begin to brown.) Mushrooms should be browned lightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Fold and combine with the green beans.

The whole dish will probably need more salt. I use fine sea salt for this. Taste and salt to your liking.